SC Part Two - The Food!

Here is part two of our vacation in Charleston, SC last week.

Sunday morning we woke up on Folly Beach and took in the breathtaking scenery.  My father-in-law was able to snap a few pictures of us all pre-coffee/pre-shower and very tired.  We lost an hour traveling from one timezone to another, and then we lost another hour due to Spring Forward.  So after soaking this all in, we were headed to brunch!

I am a big fan of breakfast foods, and I love a good brunch so much.  My sister-in-law made reservations for us to have brunch at a place called High Cotton.  It was delish.  My sister-in-law bragged on the shrimp and grits at this place.  Well, I love shrimp and I love grits, so before our vacation I had made it my mission to enjoy this dish sometime while in Charleston.  Four out of five of us ordered shrimp and grits, and it was wonderful!

After brunch we walked a few blocks to Waterfront Park and enjoyed the scenery. 

That night we had our beach photo shoot that sadly didn't include much of the beach because it was so chilly!  After pictures we decided to stay on Folly Beach instead of driving back into Charleston, so we ate at Taco Boy.  It was really good - tacos with every kind of filling you could want.  I had a grilled chicken taco and a carne asada taco.  We all split the nachos as an appetizer, and I wish I would have gotten them for my meal, because they were that good!

Monday morning we woke up and my father-in-law got brunch to-go from The Lost Dog Cafe on Folly Beach.  We thought we'd get a couple of things to tide us over until lunch, and we got enough to pretty much sustain us through lunch!  The fruit parfait was in a Solo cup; there was no way I could eat the entire thing but it was fun trying.

After letting Collin play at the beach for a while, we had lunch at Rita's on Folly Beach.  I was still full so I only ordered an appetizer!

Monday night we had dinner at Hominy Grill.  

Let me just say we are all still dreaming about this place.  It was the quintessential Charleston restaurant.  Cocktails had southern names, people had the most syrupy southern accents - it was sublime.  My father-in-law ordered ribs and after we all tried them Jarrod won't quick talking about paying whatever it cost to have some overnighted to us here in Arkansas!  I had a salad that was simple but yummy and definitely included fried green tomatoes; it doesn't get more Southern than that.  For dessert we split a dish of chocolate pudding.  Not the instant kind.  The kind that is made from scratch and includes more than three ingredients.  Jarrod and his parents wanted ribs and chocolate pudding the rest of our trip!  I also discovered my new favorite cocktail here: the John Daly. 



And amazingly, after Hominy Grill we headed to dessert.  We had been told to visit Kaminsky's for dessert and coffee/dessert cocktails, and while exploring Charleston our first morning we walked right by it.  One look at their dessert case and we knew we had to come back!  Jarrod and I had apple pie and bourbon pecan pie.  This place is open until well after midnight.  We were there around 9pm or 10pm and it was hopping! 

Tuesday morning we grabbed a quick breakfast of smoothies and pastries from Black Magic Cafe on Folly Beach, and we headed to the South Carolina Aquarium so Collin could finally say he had seen sharks in Charleston.  This was a really nice aquarium, and Collin really enjoyed it!

After the aquarium we had lunch at Five Loaves Cafe.  We thought we were going to get a light lunch with soup, sandwiches and salads but again, we got a lot more than we imagined.  It was yummy!  I had half a salad and sandwich, Jarrod had the other half of my sandwich and a cup of soup.  Our sandwich was chicken salad, but it also had avocado and bacon on it.  Ahhhmazing!

After the aquarium and our not-so-light lunch, we went back to Folly for naps.  We still hadn't been down to the end of Folly yet to see the Morris Island Lighthouse that is off the coast, and we realized that afternoon would probably be our last chance.  So, we woke Collin up from his nap and hurried down to the end of Folly.  After parking the car, we had to walk a little while down an old asphalt road and then over some sand dunes until we got to the beach.  Once we got down to the beach, this is what we saw -

So cool and so beautiful.  Collin kept calling it the "Itehouse".  He loved it!

We had dinner reservations at Poogan's Porch that evening, and my poor mother-in-law had already changed the reservation once so we had to run back to our condo to clean up for dinner.  We all could have spent a lot more time down here at this end of the beach looking at the lighthouse and playing in the driftwood and sea shells.  We ran to get ready but it wasn't looking promising so Jarrod's mom had to call and bump our reservation AGAIN!  We made it though, and I am so glad because it was yum-O!

I was still so full from everything we'd been eating so again I just ordered one of their "starters".  I had Mac & Cheese, which is also very popular in the South and so much better than anything you could get out of a box.  This was made with country ham and aged, smoked gouda.  Yes, please! 

Wednesday morning we had to be up and out of the condo early.  We went back to The Lost Dog Cafe on Folly and ate breakfast there before heading to James Island to a really beautiful park.  I had ordered a kite for Collin before our trip and shipped it to Jarrod's sister in Charleston, but we never seemed to have the time to fly it until this last day.  We went to the park and tried for a while, but there wasn't enough wind to get the kite up and keep it up.  This is about all the kite flying that Collin was able to do!

We hung around Charleston for a little while that afternoon and spent some time at Jarrod's sister's house before heading to the airport.  We were ready to be back home, but I think this is one of the vacations I have been saddest to leave.  I love all things Southern and Charleston was just beautiful.  The architecture, the food, the marshes and the ocean were all so beautiful.

The Folly Beach pier is iconic and rightly so - here we are loving South Carolina!

Back from SC & the Things I Learned About Traveling with a Toddler

We are back from our South Carolina vacation!  We got home last night a little after 9:00 pm and were all in bed before 10:00 pm!!  Four airplanes in five days and one toddler made this family very tired.  We survived it though, and we had a wonderful time.

Things I learned about this type of traveling with a toddler...

* It doesn't matter if I whisper in his ear while disciplining him in public because he will shout out whatever it is we're discussing for the whole flipping world to hear.  I had to tell him countless times on the plane to keep his seatbelt fastened because it was the rule, but he didn't care.  I tried telling him it wasn't a toy, and all that got me was him yelling when I went to mess with the air vent above our heads, Mommy dat's NOT A TOY!!!  And when I would lean in to swat him as discreetly as possible or try to correct him, he would shout, I TOLD YOU!  And of course there were also the times when he would just meltdown and cry for the entire plane to hear.

I know, he looks so innocent.

* If you introduce a toddler to PEZ, he won't care that there is a certain way to work the dispenser, and he won't understand why the dispenser is no longer producing them after he's eaten them all up.  All he'll care about is that you give him more Shark PEZ a.s.a.p. 

* Telling a toddler not to lick the airplane window because it's gross will only cause him to do it again and then shout, Dat's gosss!

* Sometimes people will give you free things because your kid is cute.  This is obviously fantastic.

* Taking pictures on the beach in 60 degree weather, plus a windchill, will not work out so well.  Adults can suck it up and carry on with a smile.  A toddler can't.  He will cry and make his lips quiver in the cold so you feel like an idiot for trying to plan such a thing.  It's a good thing God invented Papas, because Collin's saved the day during our beach photo shoot.

Poor baby finally getting some dinner after a cold evening taking pictures.  He's still glassy-eyed and snotty-nosed from all the wind.

* There is nothing better than handing a toddler something *new* and watching them be obsessed with something they love, but you better be prepared for how quick the *new* wears off.  I was so proud of my bag of tricks I had put together for the airplane rides and they worked wonderfully on the way there, but they were all old news on the way back. 

* Having a woman who could pass for Paula Deen's cousin declare (in Paula Deen's accent) that your boy is gorgeous and should be on the cover of a southern gentleman's magazine can almost make you forget about all the naughty things he's done in the past 48 hours.

* If you give a toddler a kite, he won't care that it takes some effort to put it together and he won't care that it takes a minute to get it to fly.  He will just want. it. right. now.


"Helping" Daddy put the kite together.

This is all he wanted - to hold the kite string and feel like he was in control of it!

But really we had a wonderful time!  We ate so much amazing food that I think I will do an entire post on the food alone.  In fact, I'm still full.  Seriously.

I thought I could sit and look at the ocean for hours and now I know I can.  My mother-in-law did a wonderful job locating an awesome condo to fit us all comfortably.  Every morning, all I had to do was open my eyes, turn my head and I could see the ocean. 

The view from my pillow.